Friday, July 8, 2011

People on the left have often appeared to excuse Muslim acts of terror saying things such as “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” At the same time, the left has seemingly become more anti-Israel and anti-American. It seems as if it is a contradiction that people on the left, who supposedly have gay rights, women’s rights, and separation of church and state as their core values, would so often side with a group that goes against all these main principles.

One of the areas where radical Muslims and the left have found common ground is in their hatred of western style culture -- America and Israel, in particular. In their view, America and Israel are the true evil in the world. Both groups speak of America and Israel in such a way as to create caricatures of exploitation and colonialism.

Radical Muslims refer to America as the Big Satan and to Israel as the Little Satan. Radical leftists spell America with a K or three Ks to illustrate its supposed racism. Both groups seem to enjoy burning American flags. The leftist dominated United Nations is quick to condemn Israel and Zionism, in particular, as racism but at the same time will appoint countries such as Syria to head groups on human rights! American intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky have been rabidly anti-American and anti-Israeli.

It is even worse in the case of education because an entirely new generation is trained in the illogical and self destructive hatred of America and Israel. Noam Chomsky teaches college kids that “The Arab-Islamic world has a long history of democracy. It's regularly crushed by western force”. Clearly kids in Chomsky’s classrooms don’t hear about the women who get stoned to death for adultery. Nor do they hear about the fate of a person who dares commit the horrible offense of changing his religion from Islam to Christianity.

Directly in the Muslim world, the indoctrination of children begins at younger ages and is more violent but the methods are essentially the same. Young children are not taught facts. They are shown maps of the Middle East where Israel doesn’t even exist – not in the present, past or future. Children are given textbooks claiming that some Jews were transformed into pigs and apes. They are told to read excerpts from the known forgery “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” which claims that Jewish people are intent on world domination. In some cases, young children are trained in suicide bombing!

Both of these radical groups want to create mindless foot soldiers who are ready to do battle on their behalf. The training of the foot soldiers begins at a young age -- But what of the battle itself? What are the plans and how is this battle to be fought?

One of the leftist heroes is community organizer Saul Alinsky. In ‘Rules for Radicals’, Alinsky laid out his battle plan. In comparing Alinsky’s rhetoric with that coming out of the radical Muslim world there are startling similarities. Both leftist and Muslim radicals rely on deception. Alinsky said “Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” In the Koran it says “War is deception”.

Alinsky said "In the beginning the organizer's first job is to create the issues or problems." This is exactly what the left is doing today in the flotilla that is going to Gaza. Both the Muslims and the left know that Israel cannot let ships pass through uninspected to the Gaza strip because of past and current weapons smuggling. The people heading out on this flotilla are following Alinsky’s statement to the letter! In this case, acting in unison, both radical groups are forcing Israel into a public high profile action meant to make it look cruel and violent. By sending out the flotilla in this way, they put Israel in a no-win situation. This is exactly what Alinsky meant when he said “create the issues or problems”.

In the Koran, it says “The necessities justify the forbidden.” Alinsky said about means and ends:“’Does the end justify the means?’ is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?’”The Koran forbids certain actions but allows for exceptions in cases where there is a perceived threat to Islam or where Muslim goals can be achieved. The fact that these exceptions are open to interpretation means that there is basically nothing forbidden in the Koran which is why radical Muslims can justify suicide bombers and the targeting of innocents. Alinsky said “In war, the end justifies almost any means”.

Both radical Islam and radical leftists use fear and intimidation to keep both their friends and their enemies in line. Alinsky said “It is a sad fact of life that power and fear are the fountainheads of faith.” He also said "Society has good reason to fear the Radical … He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous ... Radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of Conservatives." The Koran says “slay the Pagans wherever ye find them”, and "Fight those who believe not in Allah”.

The result of these policies of intimidation in the Muslim world is that those peaceful loving Muslims that we keep hearing so much about are never heard from. They have been intimidated into silence. Similarly, people in the western world have been intimidated into silence or at best, feeling they have to rationalize their views. While threats of death are the methods in the radical Muslim world, in the west the threat is more subtle. Out of control political correctness has caused people to become afraid to speak about common sense issues while the radical and the insane become more normalized.

Both radical Islam and radical leftists fear the power of the individual while glorifying death and martyrdom. Alinsky said “The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.” He also said “Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.” A Taliban spokesman said “There are thousands of youth who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to living.” Muslim children are taught to give their life for a greater power and rewards in heaven. Leftists are taught to give their lives for their utopian paradise.

Both radical Islam and radical leftists have contempt for the average person. They have contempt for both their enemies AND their friends. People are looked on as beings that need to be led, not as people who are capable of finding their own way. The Koran says “Believers! Do not ask questions about things which if made plain and declared to you, may vex you, causing you trouble." They are told to accept everything that is spoon-fed to them on faith and to not seek answers or to even ask questions!

Alinsky said about the average person: “Their lives have been 90 per cent unfulfilled dreams. To escape their frustration they grasp at a last hope that their children will get that college education and realize those unfulfilled dreams. They are a fearful people who feel threatened from all sides.” Alinsky also felt that a “target” was needed to inspire the emotion needed to get people organized. Radical Muslims have that target in Israel, America and the west. Leftists in the United States rely on class warfare and tend to pick out a ‘Darth Vader’ like embodiment of evil. Michele Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Dick Cheney, Haliburton and Walmart (corporations are often cast as the ‘Darth Vader of the day’) have all been targeted for attack.

Alinsky said “An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent… He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time. Out of this mechanism, a new community organization arises”. In the case of Alinsky and the left, they have to tear down and discredit the free market in order to build something back in their own image. Therefore, their policies are destructive. In the case of radical Islam, in order to use the people’s dissatisfaction and discontent, they have to keep the Palestinians in a state of poverty in order to use them for propaganda value. The Arab and Muslim world could have easily absorbed Palestinian refugees but that would have taken away their most important leverage tool.

Radical Muslims and radical leftists have many differences but they also have a lot in common.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Many pundits have said that Barack Obama will be difficult to defeat in the 2012 presidential election. They say that on a personal level, people still like the president and that the republican field is weak. People may not agree with everything Obama has done but many are still willing to give him a pass based on situations he inherited from the previous president.

One group that may be somewhat reluctant to give Obama a pass is doctors. Obama has said that there are doctors who cut out healthy tonsils, even healthy limbs in order to earn extra money. He said this as if it was common practice and that such procedures are encouraged by the medical profession. Obama’s casting of all medical professionals with this slanderously broad brush may anger those doctors and nurses who truly care about helping and curing people.

Police officers may also not be too thrilled to support Obama in 2012. Police officers and police unions spoke out angrily when Obama said the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. He made this comment only moments after he said that he didn’t know all the facts of the case. His rush to judgment on the ‘stupidity’ of the police officer involved shows an inherent distrust of police, in general.

Another group that may be somewhat distrustful of Obama is the British. Obama made a point of packing up and sending back a bust of Winston Churchill. If he truly didn’t like the bust of Churchill, he could have simply put it in a closet. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that by sending it back, Obama actually WANTED to insult the British. He also has insulted the Queen and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He has sided with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. He called France America’s strongest ally and has also challenged British influence in NATO.

But other than doctors, police and British people, everyone likes Obama -- Unless you are a member of the Supreme Court or are a person who believes in a constitutionally mandated balance of power between different branches of government. When Obama insulted a Supreme Court decision during a state of the union address, he insulted more than just the decision and the members of the court who made that decision -- he insulted the very idea of what the United States is as a Constitutional Republic. By calling on congress to overturn a Supreme Court decision he showed a lack of grace and civility that is certain to lose votes among people who believe in and cherish the constitution.

People in the United States generally think that America is an inherently good and moral country. When Obama went to Egypt and to countries in Europe and said that in the past, America has acted arrogantly, he insulted all the people who felt that America has done an incredible service to the world. Isn’t America insulted enough by Europe and by Muslim countries in the Middle East? Does the United States need to be insulted by its own president? How about the president bringing up all the American people that have died protecting people in other countries? How about his bringing up all the technology invented by Americans that have saved lives? How about his bringing up all the wealth American policy has created for the world and the generosity of Americans in freely giving that wealth to countries? Other countries, by the way, who continue to criticize the methods of that wealth creation which they are the beneficiaries of!

Obama has insulted the military and the CIA which, after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, has worked tirelessly and effectively to prevent another attack. President Obama said “Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained”. According to Marc Thiessen’s brilliant book “Courting Disaster”, an officer at one of the detention camps said “I’m not doing anything to create terrorists”. Another said “I take offense at that. The detainees here are better fed and live in better conditions than prisoners anywhere in the world. Some have had the opportunity to leave, and chose not to.” Other prisoners have been transferred to other detention camps and asked to be returned to Guantanamo. Officers at Guantanamo have done an incredibly difficult job. They’ve been harassed mercilessly by their captives and have shown incredible restraint and professionalism only to be insulted by their very own commander-in-chief.

During the presidential campaign, then Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. It would seem as if Obama only cares to show support for wounded veterans if he can gain political mileage out of it. This is a truly amazing display of arrogance and lack of respect to the US military and all wounded veterans.

President Obama has also insulted Christians. He refused to issue an Easter or Good Friday greeting to the nation as other presidents have done, but he is quick to recognize holidays of other religions. He has openly mocked the bible, in particular Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In addition, he has remained eerily silent as Christians are being persecuted TODAY in Iraq, Egypt and other North African countries.

Obama has insulted rural Americans creating a caricature of them as ignorant unthinking people “clinging to their guns and religion”.

Obama has insulted the surviving relatives of the 9-11 attacks and all New Yorkers by having his justice department propose bringing the trials of accused terrorists to New York. Though popular demand ended that ridiculous idea, there is still the travesty of a mosque purposely being proposed in the sacred ground of the World Trade Center.

Obama has insulted Poland on more than one occasion. He pulled out of the agreement over Third Site missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, forcing the Poles to rethink their deployment in Afghanistan. At first he wasn’t going to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the Polish First Lady, and 94 senior officials who perished in the Smolensk air disaster. He later changed his mind on this but couldn’t get there due to the grounding of planes due to volcanic activity. In addition, rather than Obama paying his respects to the Polish fallen by visiting the recently erected Victims of Communism memorial in Washington, or at the very least, signing the condolence book at the Polish Embassy, he chose to play a round of golf.

Obama has also insulted Jewish Americans and other Americans who support the state of Israel. He has drawn moral equivalencies with Israel, a country that wants to live in peace, and only acts in its own defense, with groups of terrorists such as Hamas which are bent on its destruction and the killing of innocents. He has insulted the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on more than one occasion. He has made the ridiculous request that Israel retreat to the indefensible borders of 1967. He has drawn moral equivalencies with Israel’s building of settlements (houses!) for people to live in with people walking around with suicide belts. He has tried to push Israel to suicidal peace agreements with Syria. He has made the accusation, directly and indirectly, that Israel is the cause of instability in the Middle East. He has referred to Israel as occupied territory when, in fact, much of that land is disputed territory which Israel has more of a legitimate and historic claim to than anyone. It’s difficult to say who he has insulted more, Israel or Britain!

OK, so Obama has insulted doctors, police, the British, the Supreme Court, Constitutionalists, people who are proud -- not ashamed of America, the CIA, the military, wounded veterans, Christians, rural Americans, family members of 9-11 victims, Polish Americans and Jews. The cliché goes that ‘you have to break a few eggs in order to make an omelet. Obama should be judged by the job he’s done as president and not by the many groups he has offended.

Rather than end wars, he has added a new one. Rather than reduce the debt, he has raised it to a level that is so unsustainable it threatens the very future of the country. Unemployment has skyrocketed from 6 percent, when he took over, to 9 percent. The housing market is in shambles. Terrorism remains as big a threat as it’s ever been. The Muslim Brotherhood is taking over the Middle East while moderates such as Mubarak are gone and Iran is getting ready to go nuclear.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

What is gay marriage? A marriage consists of a wife (the woman) and a husband (the man). Can one person be a wife one day and a husband the next day? Is it decided at the time of this marriage that one person will be always be the husband and the other the wife? Or are the concepts of husband and wife to be thrown away like so many other outdated and useless old concepts?

Two people of the same sex committing their lives to each other constitutes a friendship, not a marriage. People often ask why it has to be that way. If two people love each other why shouldn’t they have the right to get married? The fact is, if two people of the same sex want to have a ceremony and dedicate their lives to each other, they can call it a marriage and no one will come and knock on their doors to stop them. The United States is a tolerant country and Americans are a tolerant people who accept the fact that people are different.

But people want same sex marriage to be recognized by the law and this means that other people have to accept the idea that a man can marry a man or a woman can marry a woman which to most people, on the face of it, is ridiculous. There is a difference with identifying your own relationship as a marriage and forcing other people to abide by that classification.

Liberals on the left and libertarians on the right may ask why the government should be in the marriage business anyway? Andrew Napolitano of Fox news said government should not try to stand in the way of a marriage between two people. So in his mind, as long as a marriage is between two people, it doesn’t matter if they are of the same sex.

If that is the case, why does the definition of marriage have to stop at two people? In fact, in this day and age, when a husband and wife often both have to work, why not have a husband and two wives? Instead of sending kids to get day care by strangers or hiring a nanny, the kids can have two legitimate mothers. One mother can work and the other can take care of the children.

Changing the definition of marriage can be rationalized in many different ways. At some point, if it is to have any meaning, it has to have a definition. Every relationship between individuals does not constitute a marriage.

Some people look at same sex marriage as a civil rights issue. This is incorrect as well. There are no separate rules for straight people vs. gay people. Every man has the right to marry every woman and every woman has the right to marry every man. It is not as if one group has one set of rules and another group has a different set of rules. If a man doesn’t want to marry a woman, he doesn’t have to do so. No one in society is forced to get married.

That marriage exists between a man and a woman is a self evident truth that most people, whether they want to admit it or not, know instinctively to be true. All the rationalizations and twisting of logic and the calling of people who feel that same sex marriage is a ludicrous idea ‘Homophobes’ does not change this reality.

At the heart of the movement to legalize same sex marriage is something far more insidious than the idea that two people of the same sex should be allowed to get married. Same sex marriage is an attack on the institutions, traditions and stability of the country.

Aldous Huxley, in his forward to a “Brave New World” wrote the following:“In a few years, marriage licenses will be sold like dog licenses, good for a period of twelve months, with no law against changing dogs or keeping more than one animal at a time. As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator … will do well to encourage that freedom … it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.”

In the classic novel “Brave New World”, history and traditions are wiped out. Classic works of literature are eliminated. The only thing that matters is stimulation of the senses where promiscuity is encouraged and rewarded. Thus this conversation from the book:Lenina: “Somehow… I hadn’t been feeling very keen on promiscuity lately.”Fanny: “But one’s got to make the effort … After all, every one belongs to every one else.”

We are constantly hearing from the left about how we need to think less of ourselves and sacrifice more for others. They never talk about the successful traditions of the past. They don’t talk about religion or God. The left seems to have an inherent hatred for all religious and time tested traditions. Gay marriage is their perfect vehicle to diminish these traditions.

For a dictatorship to thrive, all the traditions that came before must be discredited. One of the most important traditions in any civilized society is the idea of the family. By blurring the most basic, common sense idea – that marriage is between a man and a woman, you are opening up the door to making everything subjective. Some things ARE black or white with no gray in between.

Barack Obama mentor and left wing agitator/community organizer Saul Alinsky understood this all too well when he said: "An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.... To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations.”

At some point people have to make a stand for reality and truth. Some things are so obvious that there is no rational argument to be made. The left has made people question their own gut instincts. A country is more than a group of people living within defined boundaries. A country is defined by ideas and values. When a dictator wants control of a country he must attack it at its foundation. Make a country mean nothing, make it stand for nothing, and there is nothing left to fight to preserve – nothing to stand in the way of the would-be dictator because nothing is left worth defending.

When you walk into a corporate building in the month of June, you are likely to see a sign that says the following:“XYZ Company is proud to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender month.”Is XYZ Company proud to celebrate this or is it afraid NOT to celebrate it? At the risk of attracting the wrath of all the compassionate people out there, if you’re going to celebrate Transgender month, how about a celebration for schizophrenia? Where is the month celebrating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? How about signs in the corporate lobby saying “XYZ Company is proud to celebrate Bipolar Manic-depressive month”?

We have become a society of people that enjoy the thrill of a 3-D movie but can’t name any Supreme Court justices. We are a society of people that know all the contestants on American Idol but can’t name the current Vice President (of course many people who DO know who the Vice President is often wish they were part of the group that didn’t). In short, this is a society made up of people who have become gullible to the stimulus around them provided by the left. They have been told to be tolerant and non-judgmental. By the way, every time people use their brains they are being judgmental so when people tell you to stop being judgmental they are basically telling you to stop thinking. We are getting closer and closer to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”.

Is same sex marriage an important enough issue to debate and legislate? Is it even worth writing about while so many really dangerous things are happening? People were asked to tolerate differences, and most agreed that it was the right thing to do. But toleration is not celebration.

The United States is a country of individual rights and individual responsibilities. Though many have tried to pervert what the framers of the constitution meant, their main idea was that human rights come from our Creator, not from other people. In other words, the founding of this country had a religious and moral beginning and it is that idea that has been the backbone of the country’s success. That success will not continue if we abandon those principles.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

For Returning Our Planet To Its Pristine And Natural State Of Being(Based on the Essay “A Modest Proposal”, by Jonathan Swift in 1729)

Our organization, the Bastion of Urban Renewal and Progress (BURP) was founded a few years ago on the West side of Manhattan. We are dedicated to the betterment of humanity, the cleanliness of the earth and the causes of equality within and between all nations.

The organization is staffed by people from all walks of life as well as by experts in all areas of importance. We have spoken on a variety of subjects in the past and proposed many progressive solutions to the planet’s problems and dilemmas. None of the issues that we have spoken about in the past, however, has the magnitude of the issue we intend to tackle here.

All the problems on the planet can be traced to one thing – too many people. Overpopulation is depleting the planet’s resources, heating the globe to unsustainable levels, polluting the water, encroaching on the territory of the earth’s native inhabitants, causing many of them to become extinct.

The chief purveyor of these and all other planetary problems is one species – humanity. The main problem within humanity is the philosophy and economic system that has come to be known as “capitalism”.

It is capitalism, with its maddening obsession with technology and innovation, which is primarily responsible for the overpopulation of the earth by homo sapiens. The insidious technology of capitalism has created situations where babies born with birth defects now live long, healthy lives, wasting precious resources in the process. People who at one time may have lived into their 60s are now living will into their 80s, even their 90s! Thus millions of people are using resources that years ago would have been used more efficiently by the planet.

Hence, the first step in our multi-faceted plan is to rid the earth of capitalism. We must start by teaching our children at young ages not to be capitalists. The focus of schools should not be to teach disciplines such as mathematics that might encourage kids to want to create businesses or new ideas. Education should focus on kids getting along with each other and with nature. Here we applaud Barack and Michelle Obama for being so forward thinking. Both have emphasized that students should stop striving for that corner office and that big salary and instead look to serve others, to sacrifice for the betterment of society.

Unfortunately, simply leaving this up to the whims and desires of people themselves has shown to be ineffective. Humans are selfish creatures and will need to be pushed in the proper direction. Children will need to be shown how people have all but destroyed the planet in their egotistical desires to develop products and machines. These kids need to be taught how these selfish beings have found ways to grow staggering amounts of food causing an even greater increase in the population. Everything associated with capitalism seems to cause more people while increasing the longevity of the ones already here! This evil must be stopped.

What is needed is de-industrialization which can only come about by a cataclysmic change in the ways people think about their lives. The symbols of industrialization are all around us -- big tall buildings, air conditioners, cars, cell phones, ipods, ipads, blackberries, kindles, plasma TVs, HD TVs, planes above us, trains below us, laptops in our backpacks, some have technology inside their bodies replacing the very organs they were born with, buses move people across town while ferries move them across rivers, people can take out a small device and read any newspaper in the world. All this must stop if the planet is to survive.

If people won’t give up these trivial things willingly, then they must be forced to do so. Currently there is a fictional worldwide war on terror. The effort that is going on in that war needs to be brought to bear on capitalism – the real enemy!

Rich people who disproportionally exploit the world’s resources must be the first target in the war on capitalism. Our experts here at our organization (BURP) feel that the predator drones currently being used in Afghanistan could be put to excellent use in this theater. Once predator drones and all their fire power is brought to bear on capitalists, they will think twice before exploiting resources.

Imagine a barbecue on a sunny 4th of July. Here is a holiday celebrating the creation of the worst capitalist offender and the most wasteful nation of all, the United States. A family of 5 is grilling the flesh of a poor animal on their grill while celebrating this heretical holiday. This family is in their backyard laughing, playing games while somewhere else in the world there is a family starving on a couple of grains of rice. The capitalistic family has a huge back yard all to itself while somewhere else in the world there is a small room with 18 people living in squalor. But justice is done when the predator drone comes in and eliminates this wasteful wealthy family. The war on capitalism has begun.

Yes we know it seems somewhat harsh but is there any other method that has worked? Once rich people get the message that they must give up their big homes, their swimming pools, their SUVs, their big screen TVs, their computers and internet access, their satellite radio, their running water and their sewage system, then the predator drones can stop.

Once capitalists are brought in line it will be time to take down all capitalist symbols. While it was capitalists who built these structures, they won’t be needed to take them down. Only the heavens know what methods the capitalists used to selfishly build such wasteful structures but it will be much easier to destroy them than to build them.

In a world finally free of capitalism, its technology and its buildings, the planet can start to heal. Imagine how happy the planet will be when instead of taking raw sewage and treating it with naturally occurring enzymes and chemicals to break it down and recycle it the way the capitalists did, we take it all in its raw form (both human and horse waste since there will be no cars by then) and bury tons and tons of it in the earth.

Of course, there may be an outbreak of dysentery. Typhus might also become a problem from all the raw sewage. There won’t be a lot of doctors either to cure all of this and it could turn into a full blown epidemic, the likes of which has not been seen since the bubonic plague. Water might become polluted from all the sewage as well.

But in any situation there is some give and take. While there will be no doctors, technology, drugs or hospitals to treat the dysentery and typhus outbreaks, CO2 levels in the atmosphere will go down and start the planet on its healing journey.

We here at our organization (BURP) are aware of the tragic loss of life that will occur in this future world. We feel this loss and regret it but at the same time, we know that humans are a cancer to the planet. Should we mourn the death of a cancer cell?

A scientific expert on our staff points out that there is an inverse relationship between human population and planetary health. As all the capitalist ideas are eliminated the planet will have a chance to breathe again. However, the people left will still try to eat the native inhabitants. They will still try to grow food and reclaim land in order to do so. Therefore, it may be necessary to completely eliminate the human population.

We propose a no child policy. We are caring people and do not want to be judge, jury and executioner for the people who survive the elimination of capitalism. However, they cannot be allowed to bring more people to the planet because this could start the evil cycle all over again.

Some people, those who have demonstrated a progressive, caring and forward thinking approach, will be allowed to reproduce in order to act as stewards of the planet. We here at our organization (BURP) are imminently qualified to make this decision.

We understand that many of you may have some trepidation concerning this proposal but those of you who feel that way ought to re-think your priorities. It is not right to put the perpetuation of your gene pool above the health of the planet. We have made our choice. It is either the planet or humanity and we choose the planet.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

There are phrases and ideas that are often accepted without question. The notion that people need to ‘give back to society’ is uttered by many people who have been successful. Athletes and actors have often expressed this idea when establishing some charity or fund that helps the communities they grew up in.

While giving to charity or setting up an organization that helps people is a noble cause, there is an inherent illogic and dangerous precedent in the phrase ‘giving back to the community’. First, the idea assumes that the community has given people something to begin with. Second, it assumes that people have a right to expect something from the community.

Barack Obama seems to be a firm believer in the ‘giving back’ idea. At various times he has spoken about people who have done well in the United States:“They want to give back to the country that’s done so much for them. Washington just hasn’t asked them to.”In contradiction to the previous quote, he also said about the ‘rich’:"Their basic view is that no matter how successful I am, no matter how much I have taken from this country… Their notion is despite the fact that I have benefited from all of these investments… that somehow I have no obligation to people who are less fortunate than me. And I have no real obligation to future generations to make sure they have a better future.”

So in one comment, rich people want to give more and in the other comment he presents the rich as a bunch of selfish people who want to keep all their money. Whatever Obama actually believes about the things the rich want to do with their money, he clearly believes that it is their obligation to give more of it away to government. He said:“This is not because we begrudge those who’ve done well – we rightly celebrate their success. Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefitted most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back. “

The idea of ‘giving back’ is a diversion. It betrays the way of thinking of people on the left as well as on people who have been successful and who feel guilty about their success. With the left it is a matter of retribution and payback while with the successful, it is a matter of guilt, which presupposes that their success is somehow immoral.

While giving to charities is a noble idea and should be encouraged, giving BACK is an abomination. The ‘community’ did not create the success of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. The ‘community’ did not make Michael Jordan a great basketball player. It is wonderful of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Michael Jordan to give their money to causes that they believe in. It is criminal if they are forced to give money to this fictitious entity called ‘community’.

Community is nothing but a euphemism for government. The whole idea of our constitutional republic is limited government. All the rights are placed in the hands of individual people. The government rules by the consent of those people. It can’t give people anything because it has nothing to give. All it can do is to take from some to give to others. The prosperity of the United States was created by individuals, not government.

Bill Gates may owe his parents and he may owe friends who inspired him. Most of all, he should feel pride in himself. He has created a company that provides millions of new jobs. He has created powerful products that people can obtain at reasonable prices that make them more productive. If anything, it is the community that owes Bill Gates, not the other way around.

‘Giving back’ is a better way of saying that paying more taxes is patriotic. Joe Biden said that rich Americans would gladly pay more:“It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”Biden could not be more wrong. Paying more taxes to is like giving $20 to a kid to buy milk, eggs and orange juice. After he comes back saying that he spent the $20 on video games you give him another $20. This time he comes back saying that he went to McDonalds. So you give him another $20 and he comes back and says he went to the movies. When do you stop giving him $20?

It is not patriotic to pay more taxes and it is not patriotic to give money to a government that has proven time and again that it doesn’t know what to do with that money when it has it. All the talk about having the rich pay their ‘fair share’ presupposes that if the government had that money it would use it in a more beneficial way.

Barack Obama said about Paul Ryan’s budget plan:“There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill. “

There is so much that is misleading about this statement. First of all, conservatives are not asking anyone, rich or poor to sacrifice. Obama and the left are so used to their own rhetoric that they can’t seem to think or speak without these toxic ideas seeping in to everything they say and do. If money is spent on things that are not achieving results, it is not a sacrifice to stop spending money on those things, it is common sense.

It is beneficial to everyone, rich and poor alike, to stop wasting money on union subsidies and tax breaks for unions that do not even use those tax breaks for the benefit of their own members. It is beneficial to stop spending so much money on an education system that is clearly broken. It is beneficial to look at Medicare and social security and our entire safety net system and deal with the realities of the financial mess they are in.

Another misleading idea of Obama’s statement (more of an outright lie) is the claim of a tax cut for millionaires. Republicans are proposing to keep the same rate that has been in effect for the last ten years -- that is clearly not a cut. But more important is the idea of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘giving back’. It is ironic that Obama wants to eliminate the tax cut for charitable giving. Does he really want to encourage people to ‘give back’ or does he want to have a government that has more control over the people? The idea of ‘giving back’ seems to only get its moral cache if it is forced upon individuals by an intrusive government.

Ayn Rand once asked “in a society where everybody sacrifices, who wins?” She said "The word that has destroyed you is 'sacrifice'...If you wish to save the last of your dignity, do not call your best actions a 'sacrifice': that term brands you as immoral.” And she also said “Sacrifice” is the surrender of a greater value for the sake of a lesser one or of a nonvalue. Thus, altruism gauges a man’s virtue by the degree to which he surrenders, renounces or betrays his values.”

Obama said: “The change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice. And so this is a battle in our own hearts and minds about what kind of country we want and how hard we’re willing to work for it.” And he said “This is who we are. This is the America I know. We don’t have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit investments in our people and our country. To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I’m President, we won’t.

Exactly what America does Barack Obama believe in? Is it one where the people are helpless and need his help to survive? Americans sacrifice every day. They crowd into trains at 5:30 in the morning after 4 hours of sleep in order to give their kids a better life. They don’t need lectures from Barack Obama on sacrificing. Forcing people to spend money on ideas that are inimical to the ideas of the constitution and freedom is not a sacrifice, it is theft.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Former NFL coach of the NY Jets Herm Edwards uttered the words “You play to win the game” at a press conference in response to a question about the Jets playing “not to lose” rather than aggressively playing to win. The Edwards quote is funny in the way he says it but playing to win is not as obvious as his quote makes it seem.

In sports, there are some teams or individuals who play aggressively, trying to force their opponents into mistakes while risking mistakes themselves. Other teams don’t take chances, playing less aggressively while waiting for a mistake from their opponents that they can pounce on. Some teams try to outsmart their opponents, some use gimmicks while others try to physically intimidate.

One strategy is not necessarily better than the other. It depends on the personnel of the team and the personnel of its opponent, as well as weather conditions and other considerations. One thing is clear in sports – you find your own strength and your opponent’s weakness and try to maximize your strengths while exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses.

In U.S. politics, one of the biggest strengths of democrats vs. republicans is that the democrats get to frame the rules of the debate. This is helped by a media that is mostly made up of democrats. There are narratives and cliché’s that are accepted as absolute truths such as: The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Republicans are the party of the rich and corporations while democrats are the party of the working class. Democrats care about the elderly, minorities, children, women, gays, transgender people and the physically handicapped while republicans care about the religious right and gun fanatics. Democrats are thoughtful, thinking people while republicans are back woods people ready to support war and killing in the name of blind patriotism.

Republicans need to attack these clichés at their core before they can go into specific debates about policy. As long as republicans are portrayed in this way, they will not be successful. The worst part of these clichés is that the republicans often lend credibility to the stereotypes by trying to put themselves above other republicans.

For example, when republicans use a term such as “compassionate conservatism”, they lend legitimacy to the idea that most conservatives are not compassionate. Instead of a candidate saying that as an individual, he is a compassionate conservative, the candidate needs to say that conservatism, itself, is compassionate. The candidate needs to be able to display how and why conservatism is compassionate. Before conservatives and republicans can become the political force they need to be, they have to change the take on who they are perceived to be.

Republicans are afraid to defend anything that took place during the Bush administration and that continues to be used against them. Some political strategists, no doubt making a lot of money and being experts in their field, have decided that the past is the past and that political debates must be based on a vision of the future. But when your vision of the future is consistently compared to what you have done in the past you are put in a position where you HAVE to defend the past whether you want to or not.

An honest analysis of what took place during the Bush administration would show that Bush and the republicans were the only ones who saw the impending disaster of Freddie and Fannie, along with the housing market collapse. There are democrat politicians from Barney Frank and Andrew Cuomo to Barack Obama, himself, actually on tape saying that Freddie and Fannie were not in trouble. They are on tape saying they wanted to continue the course of sub-prime loans. These are the same sub-prime loans that were the driving force behind the economic collapse.

The republicans know the complete playbook of democrats. It’s class warfare, lying about actual facts, and portraying the republicans as mean. There is no ingenuity behind that playbook. The republicans know that an 85 mile per hour straight fastball is coming straight down the center of the plate belt high but they refuse to hit it! Since they are already being sold to the public as mean, republicans are careful not to hit the ball too hard because then they might be perceived as even more mean! Yet people would respect and like republicans more if they fought for their issues rather than ran away from them.

When Barack Obama states “But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking” -- or when Obama says that republicans have driven the car into the ditch and he is trying to get the car out -- or when he says about republicans that “they can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back”. All of these comments are based on the assumption that the Bush administration, the republican congress and the republican senate created the economic mess the U.S. is in.

When the entire strategy of the democrats is based on the idea that Bush and republicans “drove the bus into a ditch” then it is incumbent on the republicans to show that they were screaming to stop the bus while the democrats kept driving. In fact, there is a rumor that while the bus was speeding toward the cliff, it was stopped by a traffic cop but when the officer asked for a license and registration, Barack Obama chided him for being extreme. Apparently the officer let the bus go after Obama showed him an old learner’s permit from the state of Hawaii.

Obama was recently caught off camera by CBS and said “Go at it” in referring to republicans attempt to repeal his health care plan. If Obama wants a fight, the republicans should give him one. Start by isolating the lies constantly being told by the left and then attack the motivation for saying the lies, as well as the substance of the lies themselves. It can’t get done through the media and must come in a “mano a mano” challenge directly to Obama. Obama will get angry and will try to hide it by his signature smile. Nevertheless, if he is really challenged, he will come across as bitter and vengeful.

A quick word about the “Birther” issue – a friend recently applied for a job at a large financial firm. He had to provide: Proof of citizenship, A full college transcript, Allow the company to do a full credit check, Show documentation and proof of all residences for the last ten years, Copies of passport and drivers license, Get a drug test. Why does a person applying for a job at a financial institution need to show more proof than the person who has the most powerful position on earth?

The President works for the people and we have a right, actually an obligation, to make sure that he is who he says he is. In fact, we know he has a large collection of friends (too numerous to name here) who have anti-American sentiments. Is it unreasonable to ask to see what he wrote during his informative years in college, especially given who his friends are? Every other president has released his transcripts, why not Obama?

As to the birth certificate, if it has been lost then say so and tell us why. Obama has spent about 2 million dollars fighting lawsuits that want him to simply show the birth certificate. He clearly does not want to show this document. Maybe he is a citizen and maybe he isn’t but he clearly seems to be hiding something.

George Bush had about 10 minutes unaccounted for from his service in the National Guard and every media company in the world tried to find out what went on in those 10 minutes. Now we have a president who hasn’t released his medical records, college transcript and writings, and birth certificate. Where is the media curiosity? Republicans need to (pardon the expression) grow a set on this one and simply demand that Obama release these documents as all other presidents have done.

The republicans have to fight on their terms. Despite an antagonistic media, there is no need for trick plays. All republicans have to do is toss the ball down the field and they will win. There is no need to take a call on a cell phone in the middle of a news conference. Leave this kind of idiocy to the democrats. Are you listening Rudy Giuliani? Don’t insult the intelligence of the citizens of this country with silly games. State your case honestly and without fear, with humor if possible but not with gimmicks. Play to win the game.